The intense race against the withdrawal of Mireia Belmonte: "She must learn to regulate herself"

• Tokyo 2020 Mireia Belmonte, sunk, does not enter the 800 final

Last summer in the corridors of the Tokyo Aquatics Center there was a silence.

It was the moment.

, her dream of being a Spanish flag bearer already fulfilled, had just been eliminated in the 800 meters at the Olympic Games and the announcement was about to fall: her withdrawal.

At 30 years old, everything pointed to her goodbye.

Her age;

the tendinitis in the shoulders that has accompanied him since 2015;

the imminent separation of her usual technician,

;

and even his Olympic performance.

In the 400 styles he was 23 hundredths from the bronze, but in the 800 and 1,500 meters he did not reach the final, moreover, he finished far away.

The best Spanish swimmer of all time could leave more than satisfied, her resume was already overflowing, but to the surprise of most she refused.

"I'm not considering withdrawing," she assured and that's it.

Half a year later, half a year of inactivity later, on January 31, he reappeared at the Sant Cugat CAR with an idea in mind: the 2024 Paris Games. Vergnoux was not there, his colleagues from before were not there, but just mattered.

After a long period of rest, for his mind and for his shoulders, Belmonte returned to training under his new coach,

, with the ambition of being an Olympian for the fifth time and who knows whether to win her fifth medal in France at the age of 33.

The legend that never ends.

«I have never lacked encouragement or strength, in that I am always at my best, there is no problem.

Now I have to listen to my body and see how it reacts.

From there I will make my decisions », she comments on her future Belmonte, which this weekend returns to the competition without objectives at the Paulus Wildeboer memorial in Sabadell.

Before diving back into the water, during the months in which he only did three gym sessions a week, Belmonte spoke and spoke with Wildeboer and a pact emerged from their conversations: he will no longer beat himself the way he beat himself, the priority It will always be dodging the pain.

«The agreement from the beginning is to go slowly, not to set a calendar this year, to establish a base that allows us to reach the 2024 Paris Games. She herself has to set the pace, learn to regulate herself, to press when she can and stop. when needed.

Now she herself goes just training, she does only one session a day and very few kilometers.

This weekend's memorial is just to catch up," Wildeboer analyzes in conversation with EL MUNDO.

The coach at the same time recognizes that, despite the inactivity,

a very young group

The Sant Cugat CAR group now led by Wildeboer -son of

, former Spanish coach, and brother of

, world medalist- is made up of only six swimmers: Belmonte,

, Spanish record holder in the 200 free, and four young ,

and

.

They were barely 10 or 11 years old when Belmonte won his first medals at the 2012 London Games, the generational clash is considerable, but they assure that the adaptation has been "very easy".

After all, everyone is aware that they are going through a season of adaptation before the arrival of British coach

, a brilliant signing of the Spanish Federation (RFEN), which from July will be in charge of preparing everyone, including the four-time Olympic medalist.

“We are also still looking for a physical trainer who also works as a physiotherapist.

At the moment the work is coordinated by me with the advice of

-the new director of the RFEN- and contacts with Ben.

It is a young group with a long way to go”, summarizes Wildeboer who hopes that Belmonte's experience will serve the swimmers in training.

The only difference between the Olympic medalist and the rest is that she has her own physiotherapist, Mónica Solana, who takes care of her battered shoulders;

otherwise all the same.

At the moment, in fact, she does not plan concentrations in height or stages in distant places as she used to in previous years.

Belmonte lives a time of tranquility, enjoying her life in Badalona with her partner, the singer

, a former contestant on Operación Triunfo, and studying a Degree in Advertising and Public Relations at the Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia (UCAM).

With motivation intact, withdrawal seems further away than it did last summer at the Tokyo Olympics.

Although to support herself she has to learn, both she and her new environment, to work with greater attention on her shoulders.

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